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Approval Processes

Updated

Approval processes route records for sign-off before they proceed.

What they do

An approval process requires designated people to approve a record before it moves forward, which is how organizations enforce sign-off on things like discounts or quotes.

Available only on the Enterprise plan, under System Settings > Automation > Approval Processes, and restricted to administrators with Advanced Permissions. Approval processes support Leads, Opportunities, Projects, and Custom Objects, with one active process per object at a time. Existing processes can be viewed, edited, or deleted from the Actions menu.

Creating a process

  1. Go to System Settings > Automation > Approval Processes and click Add New Approval Process.
  2. Enter a process name and description, choose the record type, and save. New processes are active by default, though only one can be active per record type.
Add New Approval Process Setup Form — The screenshot shows the form for creating a new Approval Process in Insightly CRM’s System Settings, with fields for Process Name, Description, Record Type, and an Active checkbox. This helps users understand what information is required when setting up an approval workflow for a specific record type.

Add New Approval Process Setup Form

  1. On the next screen, add approval criteria and approvers. Name the criteria and choose a submission type: Approval Criteria Based Submission (automatic, the default) or Manual Submission: only one manual-submission criteria is allowed per object, and it can’t use approval filters.
Approval Process Submission Type Dropdown Options — The screenshot shows the “Add Approval Criteria and Approvers” form in Insightly CRM’s System Settings, with the Submission Type dropdown expanded to reveal two options: “Approval Criteria Based Submission” and “Manual Submission.” This helps users understand the available submission types when configuring an approval process, which determines whether records are automatically evaluated against set criteria or manually submitted for approval.

Approval Process Submission Type Dropdown Options

  1. Set approval criteria filters, then choose who can approve: Users (searchable multi-select of active users, the default), Record Users (any user-type field on the record), or Role (a single role).
Approval Process Approver Selection Dropdown Menu — The image shows the “Choose Approvers” section of an approval setup screen, where a dropdown menu is open revealing three options: Users, Record Users, and Role. This setting determines who will be assigned to approve records, making it important for administrators configuring workflow approval rules in Insightly CRM.

Approval Process Approver Selection Dropdown Menu

  1. Choose the approval order: Anyone (default) or Everyone, and for Everyone, whether approvals happen in parallel (default) or in sequence. Insightly generates a default “Record Approval” notification email at this point, which can be customized with merge fields from the process’s object type. Click Save Criteria and Approvers.
Approval Order and Notification Email Settings — The screenshot shows the approval workflow configuration screen in Insightly, where users can set who can approve records (“Anyone” or “Everyone”) and customize the notification email sent to approvers. This is relevant for administrators setting up record approval processes, as it demonstrates how to configure both the approval order and the automated email that notifies approvers when action is needed.

Approval Order and Notification Email Settings

A maximum of 5 distinct criteria/approver sets are allowed per process. Creating criteria automatically generates standard lock/unlock actions for Submission, Approval, and Rejection.

The approval page

This is what an approver sees to review and approve or reject a record. Choose which fields display and their order, then click Save Fields: most approvers only need a subset of the record’s fields to make a decision.

Editing Approval Page Fields in Insightly — This screenshot shows the “Edit Approval Page Fields” screen within System Settings, where users can choose which fields appear on an approval page by selecting from available fields. The “Record ID” field is already added to the Selected Fields column, illustrating how administrators customize approval workflows.

Editing Approval Page Fields in Insightly

Automated actions

At each stage (Initial Submission, Final Approval, and Final Rejection) you can configure automated actions: add a task, send an email, add a new record, add a webhook, run a Lambda function, update the record, or trigger an AppConnect recipe.

Approval Process Actions Configuration Menu — The screenshot shows the Initial Submission, Final Approval, and Final Rejection action sections of an approval process in Insightly CRM, with a dropdown menu open listing available action types such as Add A Task, Send An Email, and Update This Record. This would help a reader understand what automated actions can be configured at each stage of an approval workflow and how to add them.

Approval Process Actions Configuration Menu

Submitting and approving

Once a record meets the criteria, it enters the approval process. For automatic submission, this happens as soon as the triggering action fires. For manual submission, a Submit for Approval option appears in that record type’s Actions menu, opening a modal where the submitter can add a comment.

Submitting an Engineer Record for Approval — The screenshot shows the Actions dropdown menu open on an Engineer record in Insightly CRM, with “Submit Record for Approval” highlighted in blue. This illustrates how users can initiate an approval workflow for an engineer record, which is relevant for teams that require managerial sign-off before finalizing records.

Submitting an Engineer Record for Approval

Once submitted, the record locks and the approver gets a link to the approval page. Automatically for automated submissions. The approval page shows Approve, Reject, and Delegate buttons, the submitter’s comment if any, and the approval history.

Pending Approval Request with Action Buttons — This shows an approval request titled “Test new approval” with a Pending status badge, along with buttons to Approve, Reject, Delegate, or edit the request. A user reading this article would see this interface when they have been assigned an approval to act on within Insightly CRM.

Pending Approval Request with Action Buttons

⚠️ A locked record can’t be edited until the approval process completes. Locking and unlocking events are logged in Field History as “Record Locked” / “Record Unlocked,” so if a colleague reports being unable to edit a record, this is worth checking first.

Record Locked by Approval Process in Insightly — A Salesforce record for an engineer named “Test User” is displayed with a yellow warning banner stating the record is locked by an Approval Process and cannot be edited. This is relevant to users who need to understand why they are unable to modify a record that is currently under review in an approval workflow.

Record Locked by Approval Process in Insightly

Approvers can reach their pending requests from their own profile’s Related tab, under Approval Requests. Or an admin can find any record’s status via System Settings > Approval Process > Records included in Approval Process.

Related Tab Navigation and Approval Requests — This screenshot shows the “Related” tab of an Insightly CRM record, displaying linked data counts such as organizations, contacts, files, and marketing lists across a horizontal scrollable menu. Below the tab navigation, an “Approval Requests” section is visible with columns for Record Name, Status, Record Type, Date Submitted, and Submitter, which is relevant for users managing workflows or tracking pending approvals tied to a record.

Related Tab Navigation and Approval Requests

Approvers don’t see this tab by default. An admin needs to add it via System Settings > Objects > Contacts > Page Layout > Related tab. Once added, it shows Record Name, Status, Record Type, Date Submitted, and Submitter. Submitters see the equivalent Approval History on the record itself, with Date Submitted, Submitter, Approver, Approval Status (Pending, Queued, Approved, Rejected, Delegated, Not Required), and Approver Notes.

Approval Requests report

Every submission generates an entry in a standard report at Reports > Standard Reports > Other Reports > Approval Requests, filtered to Pending status by default but adjustable via a multi-select filter.

Approval Requests Report Filter by Status — The image shows the Report Filters and Parameters section of an Approval Requests report in Insightly CRM, where a user is setting a filter on the Status field using a dropdown menu with options including Pending, Queued, Approved, Rejected, Delegated, and Not Required. This would matter to a reader because it demonstrates how to narrow report results to show only approval requests with a specific status, such as filtering for Pending items only.

Approval Requests Report Filter by Status

The report includes Approval Process Name, Record Type, Record ID, Record Name, Status, Date Submitted, Date Completed, Submitter, Approver, Submitter Notes, and Approver Notes by default, with more fields addable from the Report Fields panel.

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